Cuomo, lawmakers urge Senate to block Kavanaugh over guns

July 21, 2018

NEW YORK (AP) — Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in calling on the U.S. Senate to reject Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh because of his expansive interpretation of gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Cuomo, a Democrat, said Saturday that Kavanaugh’s past opinions show that he believes it is a constitutional right to carry “even the most dangerous assault weapons.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, called Kavanaugh’s nomination “a grave threat to reasonable gun control measures enacted by states.”

Meeks and other lawmakers joined Cuomo at a Manhattan news conference to urge the Senate to block Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Kavanagh has taken stands favoring broad gun rights in his current job as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Also Saturday, Cuomo was endorsed by the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, named after President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, the late Jim Brady. Brady was left permanently disabled after suffering severe gunshot wounds during the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan.